Giovanni Bilivert - Angelica and Ruggero, c. 1623-1624 'This shows a famous episode from the poem Orlando Furioso by Ariosto, when Angelica puts the magic ring in her mouth and disappears from Ruggero's sight. He had been about to rape her, after freeing her from the sea monster. It was painted for Cardinal Carlo de' Medici's residence, the Casino of San Marco.'

Giovanni da San Giovanni - Venus Combing the Hair of Cupid, 1627 'The curious subject shows the goddess Venus combing little Cupid's hair for lice. It is an ironic interpretaiton of the myth from antiquity, either by the artists, or at the request of Don Lorenzo de' Medici, who commissioned it.'

"In 1877, Robert Paget and others introduced a new kind of boat to Boston Public Gardens, a catamaran which housed a paddle wheel arrangement that was foot-propelled. To cover the captain, Robert suggested a swan as in the medieval German story in which Lohengrin, a knight of the Grail crosses a river in a boat drawn by a swan to defend the innocence of his heroine, Princess Elsa."